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Crystal Ball, May 2016

The plan for the coming month looks roughly like this — a first cut, and anything can happen according to leaders’ inspirations, the Cantor’s whim and happenstance.

1 May.Psalm 67 is quite like the Aaronic blessing, suggesting lots of atmospherics. There’s a famous canon by Tallis, but it needs preparation. If our visiting leader wishes, we could sing The emergent psalter (May God be gracious, which can be a round) or PFAS 67C.

8 May. Settings from Psalms for all Seasons and The Emergent Psalter are also neck and neck for Psalm 97, the former (97C) with slightly better words and the latter having much more interesting chords. Several hymns available.

15 May. Men sing in support of Keith who leads this week. We have sung a Gregorian chant (8th tone) for Psalm 104 previously, but that was to get into the medieval zone with an antiphon by Hildegard. PFAS 104G and Together in song 65 in four parts (with a more adventurous tone) could be good for Pentecost. The anthem could be a Tomkins setting or the delightful Sanctus (‘Heilig heilig’ or ‘Holy holy’) from Schubert’s Deutche Messe.

22 May. Women sing to support Gwenda at the helm with a lovely song for Psalm 8 by two women, Linnea Good and Lynn Bauman, Height of heaven. Paraphrased verses will be sung to the same tune.